The Board of Directors for Leadership Victoria Society extends our invitation to you to attend our Annual General Meeting.

We are looking forward to sharing the stories of impact and transformation that have taken place over the past year as well as our plans for the years to come.

This year's AGM features a keynote address from community leader and Leadership Victoria Board Member Don Evans.

RSVP here

Turning a Vision into Reality with Purpose, Passion and Persistence!

Our Place Executive Director, Don Evans shares the successes, struggles and journey toward creating a new innovative addiction recovery centre for the homeless. Come learn how Don collaborated and engaged community decision makers toward a collective vision.

RSVP here

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PST

Burnside Gorge Community Centre

471 Cecelia Road

Victoria, BC V8T 4T4

Stephen Twynstra

After a rigorous search, we have found the perfect program manager for Victoria’s flagship leadership development program.

Please welcome Stephen Twynstra to the position of Program Manager of Leadership Victoria.  

Stephen spends his time helping leaders develop values based transformation in their organizations and personal lives. His personal leadership philosophy is to build ‘a safe place to learn and grow, together’.

With over 20 years of experience in coordinating training programs and facilitating groups he is well poised to help move Leadership Victoria to our next phase as we continue to develop the influence of local leaders.   

We are proud to welcome Stephen to the long line of incredible staff who have helped develop the leaders of Victoria's future.

If you are interested in standing out and changing the world, you might be a leader for our intensive leadership training program.  Talk to Stephen, he will help you find your opportunity 

The Victoria Community Leadership Awards 2018 was a night to remember. The community leaders were truly honoured and celebrated by the Lieutenant Governor, the community, and their peers.  Do you see yourself in the high-resolution photograph below? Please feel free to download this picture as a lasting memento of the event and of those who were celebrated.

Will it be you standing, honoured, on those stairs in 2019?  

Please welcome Mark Crocker to the position of Executive Director of Leadership Victoria.

Mark brings a passion for building healthy communities and extensive experience leading projects and training volunteers doing humanitarian work all over the world. Mark designed and delivers a cross cultural training certificate program for leaders of volunteer teams working overseas, and he also consults and coaches individuals and groups engaged in making an impact in community development and cross cultural settings.

Mark currently volunteers as a director of the New Hope Schools society, where he is working on introducing a smokeless stove design to reduce respiratory disease for families in Haiti.

Locally, Mark helped to organize the successful refugee sponsorship event in June 2016 put on by the Inter-Cultural Association and the Anglican Diocese to provide information to community members interested in sponsoring refugees in Victoria.

Mark is an innovator, a connector and a community builder, and he is looking forward to using these skills to help Leadership Victoria launch its new program and to continue to develop, celebrate and support leaders engaged in building a vibrant community.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted nominations to date! We have been reading about some amazing leaders in the Victoria Region! We even got a submission from Australia! The submitter did not realize that we were Leadership Victoria in BC, not New South Wales in Australia. 

We look forward to reading more about those who create the vibrancy of Victoria. 

Tickets are on sale now for the Awards Gala being held at Government House. If you attended last year, you know this is a great venue and an opportunity to meet our new Lieutenant Governor. 

And it isn't too last to be a sponsor! For more information to about how to spread the news of the great work you are doing in your organization, please get in contact executivedirector@leadershipvictoria.ca

Nominations for the 2018 Victoria Leadership Awards is now open!

Leadership Victoria is very pleased to once again recognize our extraordinary leaders in the Greater Victoria area. This year's event will be held at Government House, hosted by the Lieutenant Governor.  

Public nominations will be accepted from people from all ages and all walks of life. If you know someone who has had a large community impact or has demonstrated positive leadership in their community they may be eligible for a Victoria Community Leadership Award. Visit our Selection Page for more information on the the criteria to nominate a local leader.

Please follow this link, VCLA Nomination Form to suggest a community leader that you know to be recognized in the 2018 Victoria Leadership Awards! Please email the completed form to executivedirector@leadershipvictoria.ca

Nomination deadline is March 21.

Tickets are now on sale for this gala event on Thursday, May 3! Please join us to celebrate our inspiring leaders!

Thank you to everyone who has RSVP'd so far to attend our stakeholder meeting on Tuesday, February 28 at 6pm at Our Place. The redesign committee is looking forward to sharing the results and the option they hope to move forward. 

There is still time to join the meeting. Please RSVP in the link on the events page. We are looking forward to continue to provide excellence in leadership training with our community partners.

Since 2000, Leadership Victoria Society has been the go-to organization for community leadership development in Greater Victoria. We now have over 320 alumni in our community, each doing their bit to make our communities the best they can be. While we continuously evaluated and updated content, we retained the basic structure of the program, such as its duration and delivery over a nine-month period, its use of coaches, mentors and its model of face-to-face facilitation of workshops culminating in learning labs via team projects.

Last September we agreed it was time to thoroughly appraise our Community Leadership Development program design. We initiated an intense learning journey to assess content, delivery methods and duration, diversity and audience needs. We explored any emerging edges and opportunities that might be relevant and important to our review. We invited our key community stakeholders to participate in our review by completing one of two surveys: an employer and a community survey.

Thank you for your responses – your perspective and thoughtful comments were significant in providing deeper insights into the shifting and evolving nature of community leadership. We collected and synthesized the data from our consultation and research and identified the following key issues:

· Profile of Leadership Victoria

· Time commitment of program

· Cost and relevance of program

· Complexity and diversity of community leadership needs

In December, the Board endorsed the design team’s preliminary recommendations, and requested the team to propose programming, business model and delivery options for the Board’s consideration. On January 23 they endorsed one of the team's proposed program and delivery options.

We invite you, our key stakeholders and community leaders, to provide feedback on this model and its delivery methods on February 28 from 6:00 - 8:30 pm at Our Place is located at 919 Pandora. Snacks and beverages will be offered. We encourage you (or your representative) to participate in this important session; your voice is valued. If you are interested in attending please RSVP to executivedirector@leadershipvictoria.ca

We expect to complete this phase of the engagement process in early Spring and commence developing a concrete program and business model. We'll keep you posted on our progress through continued messages like this one. Thanks again for your interest and support.

Have You Heard of the Community Leadership Development Program?

Leadership Victoria offers a 9-month experiential leadership development program, to learn about important issues facing the Greater Victoria region. Meet and learn from the community’s most dynamic leaders, and strengthen their leadership potential through face-to-face learning and a team-based community action project. Applications are accepted from March to August each year, and the program starts in early September. For more information or to sign up for a free information session you can visit our website or contact the Executive Director.

The 2016/2017 cohort completed their sixth and seventh Community Learning Days among the trees and wildlife at the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary.

Friday, January 20th started with a bang as groups discussed their ride along experiences and were taken on a guided walk of the gallery at the Nature House. The cohort then jumped into a riveting theory presentation on Stakeholder Analysis. Afterwards, they undertook an interactive group activity that demonstrated how to prioritize stakeholders on a flip-chart and discuss which stakeholders in Greater Victoria may have an impact on their final community action project. 

A wonderful presentation was given by Maureen Sawa from the Greater Victoria Public Library. The day ended with incredible presentations and peer feedback from our groups about their future Community Action Projects. It has been incredible to witness the personal growth of all our participants and we are excited to see the outcome of their Community Action Projects.

On Saturday, January 21st, participants began the day by discussing their Community Action projects followed by not one, but TWO theory lectures, on mindfulness and how to make a successful elevator pitch in 60 seconds or less. Participants were then encouraged to test out their elevator speeches on at least three mentors who were present for the Community Learning Day. We can now say that our cohort is fully equipped to approach important stakeholders in the community and leave them with a lasting impression that may translate their visions into measurable impacts.

Participants found that the learning days "...contained a wonderful combination of interesting topics and inspirational guests." One of our students, Maria, found that the experience allowed her to develop a deeper understanding about the community, stakeholders, connections, and at the same time, reflection about how to build resilience and a healthy mind. She enjoyed hearing about the other team projects and was excited to see how they have evolved over the last 5 months. 

A special thanks to our amazing Facilitators, Coaches & Mentors: Roberta Burris, Nooreen Preusser, Norma Louden, Edie Dittman, Jennifer O’Halloran, Diana Smith, Fiona Prince, Annette Siewertsen, Rosemary Cannon, Deb Hopkins, Libby Rush, Val St. John, Susanne Bell, Suzanne Dane, Veronica Osborn, Erin Wagg.